We must be parsimonious with time. Given half a chance, it will escape from us. Time lost, the time management evangelists say, can never be regained.

Our current use of time is not rational. There is therefore no point in seeking marginal improvements in how we spend our time. We need to go back to the drawing board and overturn all our assumptions about time.

There is no shortage of time. In fact, we are positively awash with it. We only make good use of 20 per cent of our time.

Time is a friend, not an enemy. Time gone is not time lost. Time will always come round again. It is our use of time, and not time itself, that is the enemy.

The 80/20 principle says that we should act less. Action drives out thought. It is because we have so much time that we squander it. The most productive time on a project is usually the last 20 per cent, simply because the work has to be completed before a deadline. Productivity on most projects could be doubled simply by halving the amount of time for their completion. This is not evidence that time is in short supply.

It is increasingly apparent that the whole idea of working directly for someone else, of having a job with security but limited discretion, has just been a transient phase in the history of work. Even if you work for a large corporation, you should think of yourself as an independent business, working for yourself, despite being on Monolith Inc’s payroll.